9/04/2003 08:31:00 pm -
Reported by
Shaun Lyon

September 4, 2003 • Posted By Shaun Lyon

Big Finish has revealed to Outpost Gallifrey the identity of the final alternate Doctor in the "Doctor Who Unbound" limited series being released this year: popular UK comedy actress and author Arabella Weir. Weir, one of the stars of "The Fast Show" and the author of three best-selling novels including "Does My Bum Look Big in This?" will play the Doctor in the sixth and final Unbound serial "Exile" by Nicholas Briggs, being released in October. Weir's numerous other credits include TV appearances in Alexei Sayle's "Stuff," "Harry Enfield and Chums" and "Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased)," in the films "Honest, Decent and True" and "Shooting Fish," and most recently co-starred with Richard E. Grant (the Ninth Doctor in BBCi's forthcoming "The Scream of the Shalka") in the BBC's "Posh Nosh," which Weir also wrote. "I think itÆs a very funny script," Weir says. "I have to say, I was a little bit nervous. I thought, 'Oh God, this is going to be one of those things for people who are real devotees and therefore itÆll be full of in-jokes and unintelligible,' but I thought it was very funny, indeed." While Joanna Lumley made a cameo appearance as the Doctor in "The Curse of Fatal Death" for Children in Need, Arabella Weir has the honour of being the first actress to star as the Doctor for a whole adventure. However, the first lady Doctor may not be quite what everyone is expecting... Details on the story are detailed below. (Thanks to John Ainsworth and Big Finish)

Exile, by Nicholas Briggs

What if... the Doctor had escaped the justice of the Time Lords?

"They want to punish me for being me!" All the Doctor has to do to avoid being caught by the Time Lords is work in a supermarket and go to the pub. It's a cunning plan - certainly far less dangerous than fighting the dreaded Quarks and all those other alien fiends.

But just when everything seemed mundane and safe, alien transmissions, exploding poison gas, Princess Anne and wobbly trolleys burst onto the scene to ruin everything. It's a crisis! A fiendish alien plot! And the Doctor must use all the resources at her disposal to defeat it. She'll probably need to have a large vodka first, though.